Normally, when a missile is being jammed by a hostile electronic warfare system, it sees nothing but static and useless noise, since the returns that it should be homing in on are being drowned out by the jamming signal. However, the interference source itself can be detected quite clearly. The problem is that most radar guidance systems aren't designed to look for it. With just a minor software tweak, however, most radar seekers can be programmed to home in on the source of interference when they're being jammed. This effectively neutralizes jamming as an effective means of missile defense.

While home-on-jam largely defeats jamming as a missile defense measure, there are some weaknesses. In particular, some anti-ship missiles which use terminal evasive maneuvering abort such maneuvering and streak directly in when jammed. This renders them more vulnerable to activedefenses and offboard decoy/jammer systems like Nulka. Also, it's possible to activate the jammers on a less valuable ship to lure an inbound missile away from a high-value unit. This might be used, for example, to pull a volley of missiles away from the carrier toward a much less valuable frigate while the group's escorting fighters, cruisers and destroyers continue to attempt to shoot down the inbound missiles.